“Today, in the process of parliamentary control, the Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Domna Michailidou, stressed that the current government managed to correct the mistakes in the absence of the housing allowance for uninsured elderly people and to defuse the granting of 2018 benefits to the elderly. until today “, as stated in an announcement of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.
Ms. Michailidou clarified that, not only was the granting of the allowance to the elderly beneficiaries never stopped, but for the first time clear and objective criteria for its granting were established by law 4756/2020.
“The previous absence of criteria for granting this allowance, led for years to its frequent non-granting, as the regional directorates of OPEC could not assess whether the beneficiaries met the conditions. In addition, in accordance with the law and for the purpose of transparent, effective and fast control, applications for the allowance will be submitted electronically, through the OPEC platform, which will start on January 1, 2022. In this way, citizens will not need to provide supporting documents, if they can be obtained through the interconnection of the platform with other databases “, the announcement points out.
Undersecretary of Labor and Social Affairs Domna Michailidou said: “With transparency and objectivity, we correct the mistakes of the past, financially support the elderly and digitize the procedures. We are upgrading the services for the housing assistance allowance, in order to minimize the suffering of our fellow citizens. We continue to aim for social empowerment, but also for the reduction of extreme poverty. “We are doing what is humanly possible to protect our most vulnerable fellow citizens.”
For her part, the Deputy Head of the Social Solidarity Department and SYRIZA MP Theano Fotiou, stated, among other things, that a year ago, “on 26/11/20, a law was passed on the housing allowance of the uninsured elderly, with the false claim that you register it for the first time, while it is given since 1985 with successive JMs by the municipalities and from 2018 by OPEC. The law stipulated that the submission of applications will be done exclusively in an information system, so neither the beneficiaries could apply for renewal, if they had a change of lease, nor the new beneficiaries first application “.
Among the questions asked by Ms. Fotiou were the following: “a) Why was it hidden in the answer of July 28 that a month and a half ago there was a legal return to the old system of written applications to OPEC, application, on the one hand, those who have a change in the lease, and on the other hand, those who are interested in a new application and, c) if the beneficiaries will be informed, that now they receive the allowances and will have to return them to their owner “.
.
